Gustav Engelbert Leithäuser

Gustav Leithäuser (born December 20, 1881 in Hamburg , † September 1, 1969 in Berlin ; full name Gustav Engelbert Leithäuser ) was a German high-frequency technician and university professor .

Life

As the son of a high school professor at the Johanneum in Hamburg , Gustav Leithäuser studied physics and mathematics at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Berlin and received his doctorate in 1903 with the dissertation on the loss of speed that the cathode rays suffer when passing through thin metal layers and on the measurement of magnetic spectra .

In 1905 he proposed a stroboscopic method for analyzing alternating current curves. The stroboscopic disc is divided into black and white sectors on concentric circles, the numbers in the individual rings being in proportion to the natural series of numbers. The rotating disk is illuminated with a light source fed by the current to be analyzed. The rings corresponding to the partial oscillations of the current seem to stand still.

In 1910 Leithäuser was appointed professor at the Technical University of Hanover , where he devoted himself to high-frequency technology. During the First World War , Leithäuser carried out radio reconnaissance for the first time using radio direction measurements. In 1918 he went to the Telegraphentechnisches Reichsamt (TRA) in Berlin, where he was entrusted with the reconstruction of the coastal radio stations in 1921 .

In 1925 his daughter Eva Leithäuser was born.

Gustav Leithäuser tried to develop and introduce radio and in 1926 he developed the audio circuit with capacitively adjustable feedback and the Leithauser circuit .

In 1933 he was President of the German Amateur Broadcasting and Reception Service (DASD). He also headed the committee for the selection of the people's receiver . Together with Kurt Fränz , he led the Heinrich Hertz Institute's ionospheric expedition to Tromsø in 1934 . In 1936 he was dismissed as head of department at the Heinrich Hertz Institute, as his wife was of "half barbaric" descent according to the Nuremberg Laws .

In 1945 he took over the chair for high-frequency technology at the Technical University of Berlin and took care of the reconstruction of the destroyed Heinrich Hertz Institute. In 1953 he retired.

Awards

• 1931: Slaby badge from the German Radio Technology Association
• 1933: Gauß-Weber-Medal from the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

literature

• Helmut Lindner:  Leithäuser, Gustav. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 14, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1985, ISBN 3-428-00195-8 , p. 169 ( digitized version ).

Individual evidence

1. ^ Eva Susanne Bressler: From the experimental stage to the propaganda instrument. Böhlau Verlag, Cologne / Weimar 2009, p. 199. ( online at Google books )
2. ^ Kurt Fränz, Gustav Leithäuser: The radio science expedition of the Heinrich Hertz Society to Tromso. In: Polarforschung , year 1935, issue 2, p. 3 f.
3. ↑ Peter Noll: Communication technology at the TH / TU Berlin. History, status and outlook. 2001. ( Online ( Memento of the original dated 2 May 2012 at the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link is automatically inserted and not yet tested Please review the original and archive link under. Instructions and then remove this notice. PDF)